As U.S. negotiators were overseas attempting to stop a foreign power’s aggression, American political operatives were telling the other side to hold off on making any agreement. They would get a better deal from a new administration after the election, those operatives assured them.

The results are in: for the past two years the president has been investigated for a crime that never happened.

That’s the conclusion the special counsel came to after an investigation that lasted two years, spent over $25 million, deployed 59 lawyers and investigators, issued 2,800 subpoenas, interviewed 500 witnesses, and executed 500 search warrants and wiretaps.